Last week top ranked Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly and Andrea Mackris, the co-worker who had accused him of sexual harassment, have reached an out-of-court settlement and have agreed to drop all allegations. According to the Daily News, O'Reilly will have to pay Andrea Mackris at least $2 million and possibly as much as $10 million of his own money. Under the deal, Mackris will drop the sexual harassment suit she filed against O’Reilly and Fox.
'This brutal ordeal is now officially over and I will never speak of it again,' O’Reilly stated. 'Today, lawyers issued a statement saying there was no wrongdoing in the case whatsoever by anyone. Obviously, the words 'no wrongdoing' are the key,' O'Reilly declared. 'Please do not believe everything you hear and read.' Where there is smoke, there is fire and while I certainly think that O’Reilly is guilty as charged, Andrea should take some responsibility. There are no victims.
To begin with, as a White House intern during the first Bush presidency, Andrea gave herself the nickname 'Andrea Mattress.' She agreed to have dinner with O’Reilly not once, but multiple times. Moreover, Mackris is known to be financially insolvent to the tune of $100,000 in credit card debts on a salary of $93,000. (By the way, MSNBC offered Mackris $99,000 to pay off her debts if she in return would come up with an audio tape of O’Reilly’s phone conversations with her.) More suspicious is the fact that her attorney, Benedict Morelli, recently represented a woman in a sexual harassment case that was pegged “eerily similar” to the Mackris' suit. And finally, if life was so unpleasant, why did Mackris return to Fox after a short stint at CNN to work for the man who she claimed harassed her?
Fox attorneys told the Daily News that Mackris actually first sought $600 million, not the widely reported $60 million. Apparently, Morelli showed the Fox/News Corp. in-house lawyers a draft of a six-count complaint, with each count seeking $100 million.
O'Reilly has remained on the air through out the ordeal but had to cancel several media appearances to promote his new advice book, 'The O'Reilly Factor for Kids.' The book contains a chapter on sex: 'Here's a big word for today: dehumanization. ... Guys, if you exploit a girl, it will come back to get you. That's called 'karma.'' Life does imitate art.
Tomorrow is Election Day and I for one, am exhausted by the news, trying to decipher the truth from fiction. For the real truth, please check out John Stewarts’ appearance on CNN’s “Crossfire”. I wish he was running for office. http://www.mirum.org/Crossfire-Jon_Stewart.wmv.
